Chapter 34

Aro became more and more infuriated at the thought that Carlisle was alive as the days passed. He had forced himself to focus on Vincent's information on his visit back to Italy, before he resumed his much-enjoyed stay near Forks.

"Why don't you just take your anger out on all of them?" Caius asked. "Go do what is necessary, or allow me to."

"Things are far more... romanticized than a brute attack that could very well leave us with more men down," Aro explained. He sat calmly with his hands together and one leg folded over the other.

"How-"

Aro raised a hand and silence Caius' question before he could even ask it. He knew what his brother was about to ask. How did you not see the truth in the Cullens' thoughts?

The question had no answer. He wasn't sure what to believe, but he knew Carlisle wasn't a deceitful man.

Would he actually allow his mate to believe he had been killed? His children? Aro sighed and continued to think with his eyes now closed. A hundred years ago I would have said not a chance.

"I do believe we have changed Dr. Cullen," he spoke.

"What do you mean?" Caius asked him.

"There was nothing in Esme's thoughts; nor Edward's, the daughter's, the son's... any of them... regarding Carlisle's death being a hoax."

Caius continued to stare at Aro, not saying a word to allow him to finish.

"He and Alice must have concocted the elaborate ruse on their own without telling anyone, including their mates." He sighed, then laughed, "Even ten years ago I do believe Carlisle would have backed down on such a hasty idea, though now..." Aro shook his head, paused, then nodded, "Yes, brother, I do believe we have changed him."

There was another bout of silence before Aro continued. "Who did you say it was in our coven that initially claimed he was dead?"

Caius looked up, but didn't have time to respond, as Aro rose from where he sat.

"I'd like to have a word with them."

...

Esme in Carlisle's office, where she had been for nearly a half hour. Night had crept in and the desk lamp was her only source of lighting. Next to her was the note left by the mystery person on Carlisle's car weeks before, and she continued to search the internet for Carter Mancini. While no new information came onto the screen, she couldn't help but maintain her search for something useful. Rather than continue to worry, Esme wanted to attempt to be proactive.

"Carter M-a-n..." she whispered the man's name as her fingers stroked over the keys on the keyboard. They had to have found the body by now, she thought.

Again, nothing out of the ordinary popped up; just the same old articles that she, Carlisle and everyone else had been coming across.

Esme sighed, and looked across the top of the search bar, finding a link that read 'News'. She clicked on it, then typed in the words South Beach, Washington.

The search box went to white for a moment, as the computer attempted to generate results. Esme tapped her fingers on the hardwood surface of the desk until the list she was looking for popped up.

"South Beach festival..." she whispered, whipping through each link, "South Beach band... fisherman catches shark off South Beach..." She clicked on the downward arrow, scrolling just slightly before stopping on one that was labeled, South Beach Police Logs: Body Found In Fishing Net.

Esme felt her stomach drop and clicked on the link. She waited the second or two it took for the computer to catch up, then let her eyes drift savagely over each letter of each word. Her lips moved as she read, before she spoke the name aloud.

"Tyler Hayden." Her eyes scanned the rest of the article and she whispered a few words aloud, "Wounds were not deemed to be fatal... accidental drowning..." The photo of the man in his twenties did not at all match up to the man's photograph on Carter Mancini's driver's license.

Esme sat back in the chair, but was unable to take her eyes off the screen. She read the words again and again, but couldn't fully put it together.

Caleb confirmed that the man in Carter's photo was who he an altercation with down at the beach, she thought. Could it be a coincidence that another person suffered a terrible fate at the same location? And what does this all have to do with the Volturi and Alice's vision being blocked?

Esme found herself to be extremely intrigued. She had to know what was going on and get to the bottom of it. How do Carter and Tyler fall into the same category? Maybe Caleb misjudged who he saw... she shook her head, knowing this wasn't the case. For certain, she knew it was no coincidence that Carter's ID was left on their doorstep. Maybe someone is trying to throw us off.

The screen remained at it's information-giving state as Esme felt as if she was on the verge of some type of revelation. She could feel that something wasn't quite right about what was going on, and that the body that Carlisle and Emmett had found was not completely unrelated. On top of it all, Carter was somewhere out there but where was he? And what was he; human, immortal...?

An advertisement decorate the top of the screen just above the newspaper's article. It highlighted a baseball game that would be played that evening in Seattle and Esme let her eyes focus on the Mariner's symbol for a second, before reading across the line that spelled out: Seattle Mariners host Minnesota Twins. To the right of the one-liner was the symbol for the visiting team.

Esme looked from one side to the other, then held on to a passing thought in her mind as she locked onto the Minnesota symbol.

Twins, she thought, bringing her hand up toward her mouth as she thought.

For several minutes, Esme found herself deep in thought. Alice's vision disappeared while Sulpicia was giving birth. Since then she's had no visual contact with the Volturi. Her visions have gone in and out on a regular basis since then, and every so often in our area and around the house. Simultaneously, she still cannot see the Volturi.

She knew she was on to something and her eyes drifted back to the ad about that night's baseball game.

"Twins," she said quietly to herself, causing a light bulb-like reaction to go off in her mind. "Aro and Sulpicia must have had twins."